


Queenie Deserves Better

by sixpennybook



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-16
Updated: 2018-11-16
Packaged: 2019-08-24 10:16:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16638017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sixpennybook/pseuds/sixpennybook
Summary: A Queenie-centered retelling of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, for anyone who wanted a different version of the younger Goldstein sister than the one we got on-screen.





	Queenie Deserves Better

**Author's Note:**

> Alternative summary: I watched Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald two hours ago and got so mad at the movie’s treatment of Queenie that I furiously tapped out this story on my cell phone.
> 
> Spoilers abound. Typos might abound too, so if you see any, please comment to let me know.

_God but Tina was dumb sometimes_ , Queenie thought as she watched Newt poke his head out his front door in search of her absent sister.

Queenie had spent the last year, less the last three months, peeking over her sister’s shoulder as Tina traded letters back and forth with Newt.

Queenie didn’t need to be a mind reader to know that Newt was falling for her sister - his feelings spilled forth on every page, and she told Teenie as much. Tina, though, got caught up in Newt’s jumbled words on his brother Theseus’s engagement to Newt’s former classmate Leta LeStrange. Convinced Newt still held a torch for Leta, Tina had abruptly broken off their correspondence.

Right now, though, Newt’s thoughts buzzed with her sister’s name even as he tried to focus on Queenie and Jacob. Queenie wished she could Tina about Newt - why did her sister ever question her about these things? - but that thought flattened and disappeared as soon as it came.

Right around the time Tina stopped writing Newt, Queenie had gotten more serious with Jacob, which made her sister  _worried-sad-frustrated-upset-be careful Queenie I can’t lose you too_. So Tina being Tina, she had thrown herself into her new Auror position and just last month had been selected for an investigative trip to Europe.

Queenie hadn’t meant to chase her sister across the globe, she really hadn’t, she told Newt as he waved them toward his dining table. But then she received Tina’s postcard from Paris and Jacob had a particularly good month of business at the bakery and so she and Jacob had decided on a whim to take a trip, and while they were planning to surprise Tina how could they not stop by and see Newt first?

Queenie shared these thoughts with Newt in one breath, and by the end she could sense a slightly overwhelmed aura emanating from him, but then he often gave off that sensation, around people anyway.

She also sensed warmth and concern radiating from Jacob. The concern prickled her, had been prickling at her throughout their trip and even before that. She’d hoped this trip would help them break through that barrier. She needed Jacob to see that no matter what Tina said, no matter what society said, she and him, they were - they could be solid, so solid.

While Queenie had retreated into her thoughts, Newt and Jacob had moved onto discussion of the thriving bakery. During a lull, she mentioned to Newt the refreshing tolerance in Europe for relationships between wizards and nomajs, partly because she meant it and partly as a pointed remark for Jacob.

Jacob bristled. “Come on, honey, we’ve talked about this,” he said with a sigh and a press of his hand to his temple.

Queenie had anticipated Jacob’s reaction and yet his comment still felt like a slap in the face. She could hear Jacob’s thoughts as he half backtracked and half reaffirmed his well-trodden arguments of why they couldn’t make their relationship official.

All of a sudden, the whole situation - Jacob, Newt, Tina, Europe - seemed too much. Queenie stood and marched out the door, calling over her shoulder to tell Jacob that she would be visiting her sister. She Apparated before he could follow.

* * *

 

When she arrived in Paris, she desperately needed a hug from her sister and probably some whiskey. But Tina was not where she was supposed to be.

Her missing sister immediately worried Queenie to distraction, and then she felt the thoughts of everyone on the busy Paris street pressing in around her, and then the rain started, and then she slumped to the curb, and then - a kindly woman put a hand on Queenie’s shoulder and invited her in for tea.

Queenie knew she probably shouldn’t. She knew her Auror sister would be furious. But a headache was still building behind her eyes and she just needed a minute of quiet.

The woman took her arm and walked her to a home just up the street. She sat Queenie on a couch and served her tea from a self-pouring and rather persistent teapot. She asked Queenie about what brought her to Paris.

Queenie felt tears well up. Almost without thinking, Queenie found herself babbling through her problems with Jacob. She did edit herself - Jacob became a wizard born to nomaj parents - but other than that the story stayed largely the same.

The woman tutted and poured tea at appropriate intervals as Queenie talked. Only as Queenie wound down, exhausted, did the woman speak.

“You deserve better,” the woman said.

Queenie straightened up on the couch. She did deserve better.

“Consider yourself lucky,” the woman continued. “Better to discover this problem now.” Queenie nodded along. “Non-magique are, after all, too easily led. We are of stronger stock.” At this, Queenie’s nodding faltered, but she still found herself inclining her head.

The action, a mere bobbing of her chin, startled her. It felt like a betrayal: of Jacob; of her own ideals; of her nomaj grandmother Esther Rosenberg, who had emigrated to New York from Germany without the benefit of a wand up her sleeve.

She felt a chill run down her spine. She did not - she _would not_ agree with this.

She sat up a bit straighter still and moved her hand over the top of her teacup, preventing the teapot from pouring her another cup.

As she did so, she felt another chill pass through her as she realized: She could hear nothing. In 30 minutes, the woman had given away no thoughts, not a single one.

“Well, I really should go,” Queenie said, guarding her own thoughts carefully now. “My sister will be looking for me.”

The woman’s lips curled into a sharp smile. Queenie stood, but the woman moved more quickly, stepping in between Queenie and the door. Queenie’s heart plummeted to the floor. 

“Come now, you wouldn’t leave without meeting your host,” the woman said. And so Queenie watched as Gellert Grindelwald stalked into the room.

**Author's Note:**

> Look, I could get behind a villain Queenie, even if I’d still be sad about it. But give us a real reason to believe that this woman - this American Jewish woman, this accomplished Legilimens - would join Grindelwald, the same man who tried to kill her sister last year, after just one day.
> 
> Even after writing this, I’m clearly still mad, can you tell?


End file.
